The investment firm Piper Jaffray has hired its own former head of asset management as a consultant.
Brien M. O’Brien, who ran the asset manager Advisory Research, which Piper Jaffray purchased in 2010, will now serve as a consultant to that unit. Under the terms of his new agreement, Mr. O’Brien will earn $60,000 a month, according to a filing on Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
“It’s time for me to start to transition to new activities,†Mr. O’Brien said in a telephone interview on Thursday, adding that it was always his intention to remain at the company for three or four years after the sale in 2010.
The Advisory Research unit serves both wealthy individuals and institutions, and Mr. O’Brien will focus on client relationships in his new role. The term of his new appointment runs from April 1 to March 31, 2016.
Piper announced in October that Mr. O’Brien’s employment agreement would be terminated at the end of March. The announcement also mentioned the possibility of a consulting position.
Switching to a consulting job from a full-time executive position is “not unusual,†according to Richard Stein, a senior partner at Caldwell Partners, a headhunting firm that specializes in financial services. Mr. Stein added that it can sometimes be more financially advantageous to work as a consultant than as an employee.
According to Piper Jaffray’s website, Advisory Research had more than $11 billion in assets under management as of the end of last year.
A representative for Piper Jaffray could not be reached for comment.
